Pakistan Taliban In Goodwill Prisoner Release

ISLAMABAD -- The Taliban in Pakistan has freed two members of the Pakistani Frontier Corps as a goodwill gesture ahead of the expected release of Taliban prisoners, including a key commander.

Taliban sources said that the corps members had been released.

Local officials in South Waziristan said security forces released six captured Taliban fighters in response.

The release of prisoners comes after the Pakistani government convened an all-parties conference in Islamabad on September 9 and issued a declaration requesting dialogue with the Taliban.

Pakistan is also preparing to release Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, once the second-in-command in Afghanistan's Taliban, and other Taliban prisoners as part of efforts to promote peace talks between Afghanistan's Taliban and the Afghan government.

Radio Mashaal was launched in January 2010 in order to counter a growing number of Islamic extremist radio stations in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the border with Afghanistan.